Summer in The City refelctions

It has been 8 weeks since Summer in The City and I still haven’t stopped thinking about those three days in London with some of the best people I have ever met.

If you have never attended an event like Sitc for something you are passionate about and involved in you won’t know how it feels to spend time around that many people who are passionate about the same thing as you let alone understand all the effort you make to make things to be more of a part of the community, and thats just the people on the same level as you that you meet who welcome you into their friends group with open arms and not the bigger people of the community you may watch or look up to.

This year was my second year at Sitc and I’ve made friends for life and memories I could never forget even without the hours of footage we all uploaded. After Sitc 2015 I was so happy to have seen more of the communities I love.

This year I spent my journey back home writing this following passage which mildly conveys my feelings at and after the event, I don’t think I could ever truly express how much better I feel in myself and what I want to do with my life than after I spend time at Summer in The City.

“I spent a lot of Sitc overwhelmed by how very lucky we are to be on this crazy adventure. Whether viewer, creator or both. We get to share the things we love and find find new things to love too. Creators have the opportunity to share how much work and love they put into what they make as well as sharing their work. We are so lucky to have this platform to share the things we love and even luckier for the friends we have made through it.”

8 weeks on I am still overwhelmed by my luck of the friends I made and can’t imagine how different my weekend would have been if I had chosen to sit in a different place in the boulevard on creator day before check in and talked about handmade business cards. Or if I hadn’t said I felt old in YouTube’s production fundamentals and had a guy tap me on the shoulder to say “don’t worry, I’m 21 and feel old too” Or if I hadn’t sat next to the girl in the houndstooth jumper in the queue for BookTube. What if I hadn’t found any of the amazing people I did from those seemingly insignificant choices?

After 5 years of secondary school I walked out the building thinking “thank god I won’t have to see most of those people every day any more”. After Summer in The City 2016 I dragged myself out of the excel center crying because I didn’t want to leave the people I had known 72 hours and I am thankful for them all every day.